Rhode Island memorialized a World War II pilot from Cranston on Friday, 69 years after his capture and execution by the Japanese.

Lt. Robert Thorpe was declared missing in action 1944 when his P-47 was shot down over New Guinea. Years later, following war crimes trials in Japan, his family learned he'd been interrogated, tortured and then beheaded when he refused to offer up anything other than his name, rank and serial number. His remains are still missing, so there was nothing for his family to bury.

"Lt. Robert Thorpe never had a memorial service," state Rep. Raymond Gallison said at the outset of Friday's Statehouse service that included Gov. Lincoln Chafee, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung and several state lawmakers. "This afternoon, we're going to give him one."

For Thorpe's family and his former commanding officer, Capt. Lewis Lockhart, the service was a chance to remember a skinny teen who was so eager to serve his country that he gorged on huge meals in order to meet the weight requirements for enlistment. In 1944, at age 20, he was shot down on a mission to attack Japanese units as part of an effort to liberate New Guinea and protect Australia from attack.

"We didn't know what happened to him when he didn't return to base," said Lockhart, 93, of Franklin, Tenn., who himself flew 171 missions, including a search-and-rescue for his friend. "It was only many, many years later that we found out what happened to him."

Thorpe's brother Gill, 83, still lives in Rhode Island and said he's proud that his brother's service is finally being recognized. The two brothers used to go to a nearby runway - now T.F. Green Airport in Warwick - to watch the new gleaming fighter planes practice. His brother was hooked, Gill Thorpe said.

"He always wanted to be a pilot, he just couldn't wait," he said. "It's been 69 years. It's been difficult."

Records from the Japanese war crimes trials show Thorpe was harshly interrogated, beaten, shot and then beheaded. Five Japanese soldiers were put on trial; one was executed, the other four served prison sentences of less than five years. According to their accounts, Thorpe refused to answer any of their questions about U.S. military plans. One of his captors even testified to Thorpe's resolve in the moments before his death.

"Despite brutal treatment, he did not cower," said Chafee. "This man went to his death bravely and defiantly."

The U.S. military has sent three teams to recover his remains but excavations have turned up nothing.

At the service Friday, a House resolution honoring Thorpe was read, as was a proclamation from Fung, who declared Friday Robert E. Thorpe Day in Cranston. A Rhode Island National Guardsman played taps.

Rhode Island author Ken Dooley grew up in the same Cranston neighborhood as Thorpe and remembers, at age 13, when soldiers came to tell Thorpe's family that he was missing. He has since helped the family research what happened to Thorpe in that remote corner of the Pacific.

"There once lived a man named Robert E. Thorpe," Dooley said at the memorial. "Who stood on a lonely beach and who, in the words of one of his tormenters, died magnificently."